Atlanta Spirit

To Hawks fans hoping for a new ownership to breathe new life into a franchise seemingly stuck in the middle, we’re sorry to pass along this news. The sale of the Hawks to Alex Meruelo has been scuttled — something rumored for a few weeks around concerns about Meruelo’s finances — and now the Atlanta…

UPDATE June 24, 3:39 am: The Atlanta Spirit, the ownership group for the Hawks, denied the report that a deal is close, according to the Associated Press: The Atlanta Spirit issued a statement saying “we have spoken with a number of parties, but at this time, there is no deal in place, nor is there…

It looks like the Atlanta Spirit — a consortium of owners for the Atlanta Hawks and NHL’s Thrashers — are getting out of the sports ownership business. The Spirit is in talks to sell the Hawks and Phillips Arena to John Moores, the former San Diego Padres owner, according to the Atlanta Journal Constitution. These…